This invention relates to favorites in the context of browsers.
A browser is a computer program that is specifically designed to help users view and navigate hypertext, on-line documentation, or a database. The most common type of browser is the so-called web browser, which is a computer program that runs on a client computer and is used to access and display files and other data that is available to users on the Internet and other networks. Most conventional browsers, such as the Microsoft Internet Explorer, include a “Favorite” function. The Favorite function allows a user to add a representation (Favorite) of a web page, or other data that is accessible with the browser, to a “Favorites-Menu” in the browser. Conventionally, a Favorite is added by the user by using an “Add Favorite” function in the browser. Later on, the contents or application represented by the Favorite can be reloaded into the browser. If the application is a stateless application, in other words, if the current state of the application is available on the client, the current state of the application can be saved by the browser when the user adds the corresponding representation to the “Favorites-Menu”. When the user returns to the content through the “Favorites-Menu”, the state of the application is restored.
World Wide Web (WWW) concepts focus on stateless scenarios, where the client knows the complete state of the application. For many business related applications, stateless applications show insufficient performance because large amounts of data have to be transmitted from the server to the client to make all state information available on the client. Further, data traffic created by stateless business applications requires high-bandwidth communication lines between the server and the client. The “Add-Favorite”-function, as described above, does not support “Favorites” related to stateful applications, that is, applications that store the state on the server where the application is running, rather than on the client.